Daily Progress to Perfect Holiness

Tony Reinke Holiness, Sanctification

We often imagine personal holiness is a ladder climb through this life, each day we take one more step heavenward. The reality is that for most of us it doesn’t work this way. Sanctification is played out in the fierce struggle between flesh and spirit, requiring all our Spirit-given exertion just to stand firm in one place without falling. Not to mention, on top of this, our ultimate glorification is tied to our faithful endurance during personal suffering (Rom. 8:17, 2 Cor. 1:5, Phil. 3:10).

Sanctification is no simple topic. And the most carefully balanced study of personal renewal (or progressive sanctification) that I have read is David Peterson’s Possessed by God: A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness (IVP, 1995). In it he firmly roots his study of progressive sanctification in the finished work of the Savior and in our union with Christ. Notice the carefulness with which he explains the path of personal renewal in its various forms.

He writes on pages 91–92:

The challenges to holiness examined in this chapter convey both warning and encouragement. No Christian should doubt the need to give practical, everyday expression to the holiness that is our status and calling in Christ. Only those who trust in his sanctifying work on the cross, and take seriously the warning to ‘pursue holiness’, will ‘see the Lord.’ …

On the other hand, it is possible to be so zealous for ‘progress’ that one’s attention shifts from God’s grace to human effort. Moral growth and development will be God’s gift to us at different stages of our lives, but spiritually must not be measured in terms of the rate of change. We are to go on exhibiting what we know of God’s character and will, motivated by the certainty of his acceptance, cleansing and enabling in Christ, together with the promise of entire sanctification when we meet him, face to face. Progress may be seen as we exercise ourselves in that godly devotion which issues from a true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ.

These gospel perspectives on the Christian life must not be obscured by the uncertainty of a moralisic perfectionism. Scripture emphasizes that holiness is a divine gift – a share in the life and character of God. In practical, everyday terms it means being dedicated to God and separated from all that is sinful. This condition need to be renewed and re-expressed every day, especially when testing comes or fresh challenges to please God confront us.

And then later, in the conclusion to the book, he writes this on page 136:

Although the language of glorification may be used to speak of the Spirit’s present work in our lives (e.g. 2 Cor. 3:18), the New Testament offers no simple picture of daily progress to future glory. Flesh and Spirit are locked in a conflict that does not always see victory going to the one side. We are presently being conformed to Christ’s sufferings so that we might share with him in the ultimate transformation of resurrection. (136)

Those are wise and balanced words from a book to help a pilgrim like me who struggles to understand that sometimes merely standing firm and enduring is itself supernatural progress along the path to glorification.

Ah, Iceland

Tony Reinke Iceland, Sigur Rós

Its very name makes it sound like a frigid monochromatic wasteland of ice and ash, but the more I learn about Iceland the more intrigued I become and the more — especially since watching the Heima DVD — I’ve wanted to breathe Iceland’s air, enjoy its geothermal baths, hike its hills and glaciers, step up its hexagonal basalt columns, watch its geysers, listen to its massive waterfalls, walk its moonscapes, splash barefoot on its black sand shores, maybe watch a volcano spray red fire into the night sky, or just drive through old Norse-named towns like Kirkjubæjarklaustur.

From what I’ve been able to gather, the features of Iceland inspired the features of Tolkien’s Middle Earth just as much as Icelandic folklore inspired his story. That makes sense.

So I’ll get to Iceland some day. But if you cannot be in Iceland I guess the next best option is to watch video footage from Iceland. Here are some favorite videos of mine, all discovered as I klikked on the Inter-nets. What a country.

Bless bless

Tony

Should You Read My New Book?

Tony Reinke .Lit!, Reading

The other day I mentioned that 300,000 new books are published each year in the US. With so many new books to choose from, one blog reader asked why he should read my new book? What original contribution does book 300,001 make? Is Lit! worthy of a reader’s precious time?

Those are all fair questions to ask of my book or any book. And while I cannot answer these questions for you personally, perhaps it will help if I explain why I wrote my book.

For the last several years I have read any author who addresses the topic of book reading. And I wish there were more authors and books to choose from. I’ve read Mortimer Adler of course, and also Harold Bloom, but also a number of modern Christian authors like James Sire, Gene Veith, Alan Jacobs, C.S. Lewis and Leland Ryken. Not to mention a number of patristic and reformed writers throughout the centuries. Each of these writers has much to teach us about reading books and I commend each of them.

But as I read these books from a pastoral and Christian perspective my mind kept returning to two important themes that seem to be neglected or assumed in many of these books: (1) clear and transcendent theological convictions for why reading matters, and (2) practical tips to help struggling readers.

Out of those burdens emerged a book idea.

First, I had a vision for celebrating the inerrancy of Scripture and the sufficiency of Scripture, but in a way that is careful not to diminish the contributions of all other books. John Broadus once wrote that Chrysostom and Augustine speak not so much as loving pagan writers less, but as loving the Scriptures more. I agree. When we look back to our forefathers we see men who do not diminish the value of books in order to distinguish the value of one Book (Scripture). A very high view of Scripture can coexist with a high view of great literature. This theme became chapter 1.

Next, I had a conviction that faith in the gospel fundamentally alters our literacy. To date I have not read anything that connects how the experience of personal conversion changes how we read books, even — to choose just one example — how we read a contemporary business book. Yet as I studied Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 3:14–16 I began to discover how the gospel influences our literacy, and I wanted to write about it. This became chapter 2.

Next, I wanted to explore the challenge of prioritizing book reading in an image-driven society. Do we discover truth and meaning more clearly through language or images? The answer is language. This is an important conviction, but one I could not find articulated in a way that satisfied me. I wanted the discussion to honor the value of images and artists, while carefully showing the distinct value of language and books to communicate meaning. This became chapter 3.

Next, I wanted to show how the biblical worldview equips readers to identify what is true, good, and beautiful in the books we read. I am grateful for the narrative worldview framework emphasis (creation > fall > redemption > restoration). This approach brings clarity to the metanarrative behind all of creation and recreation. But the narrative approach has one weakness in that it tends to minimize the fruit of common grace in the world round us and can lead us to neglect what is true, good, and beautiful. To identify these things we must also develop a Christian worldview in the aggregate form, and so I sought to explain why this is critically important for discerning and cherishing books. This became chapter 4.

Building on that chapter was my conviction that God uses non-Christian books to benefit the life of Christian readers. I’ve been thankful for the many different ways this general theme has been communicated in the past, especially by John Calvin and his view of common grace. As I studied, I discovered seven concrete ways in which non-Christian books benefit Christians – spanning everything from mathematics and scientific discovery all the way up to matters of spiritual edification. I wanted to summarize my findings in one chapter, something brief and cohesive and yet also carefully nuanced. This became chapter 5.

Next, I believe that cultivating the imagination requires disciplined reading of imaginative books. Our imagination is actually one means by which God grows us in holiness, which is obvious in the use of such powerful imagery in the book of Revelation. This conviction about the imagination, and about the value of books to help us develop our imagination, became chapter 6.

I also wanted to express the conviction that fiction literature makes a valuable contribution to the life of the Christian. This is a conviction that took many years to develop in my own life. I’m a non-fiction, theology, and biography guy myself. If it didn’t really happen, then it’s fake, it’s make-believe, it’s un-true. That’s what I believed for many years. But as I have come to learn that fiction offers many benefits to the Christian reader. In chapter 9 I build off of the work of Christian literature scholars, especially Leland Ryken, to help Christians who are less convinced.

Next, I wanted to transition into the practices of effective book reading. I begin with the most important practical consideration that often goes unconsidered: What do we want our book reading to accomplish in our lives? By failing to answer this question we fail to identify reading priorities that will help us make wise book choices. In chapter 7, I explain how I developed my filters and I encourage all book readers to set aside time to develop these personally chosen priorities.

The reminder of the book elaborates on various reading practices. I wanted to write a chapter to help readers find the time in their busy schedules to read books (chapter 10). I wanted to explain how poor online reading habits lead to poor offline reading habits, and how ebook devices actually exacerbate the problem (chapter 11). I wanted to explain why and how I mark in my books and what those markings are intended to do (chapter 12). I wanted to explain how books can be used to build the local church community (chapter 13). I wanted to encourage pastors and parents to train up a new generation of readers (chapter 14). I wanted to explain the value of re-reading books, the joy of reading old books, and the danger of using books as idols (chapter 15).

I wrote this book to help Christians make book reading a priority in their lives. But for us to prioritize any discipline in our lives we must first have firmly rooted biblical convictions. This book is my attempt to explain and defend the most important convictions book readers need. Once those are settled, I want to explain certain practices that have helped me to become an effective and efficient book reader.

This project was quite ambitious. Was it too ambitious? Can one book accomplish all this? Will the scope of the book scare off Christians who don’t really read books to begin with (thus defeating my whole purpose for writing it!)? It is too soon to tell. But for now I can say that I am very grateful for a publisher who supported my attempt, a team of diversely gifted scholars who sharpened my thoughts, dear friends who encouraged me in the task, and an understanding wife who made it all possible.

My book, Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books, releases at the end of September from Crossway and is now available for pre-order here. It’s 200 pages long, and was written for Christians who want to improve as book readers.

Note: And if you’re in the Gaithersburg area, I’ll be teaching from the content of my book in a 3-week course on Sunday mornings at Covenant Life Church titled “How To Read A Book.” It should be fun. Classes will meet on September 11, 18, and 25 at 9:30–10:30 am with classes repeating at 11:00am–noon. I’ll post audio on the blog when it’s available.

Book Filtering

Tony Reinke .Lit!

Alan Jacobs makes a very good point about the importance of choosing the right books to read:

One of the most widely quoted sentences of Sir Francis Bacon—it comes from his essay “Of Studies”—concerns the reading of books: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” This is usually taken as a wise or sententious general comment about the worthiness of various texts, but Ann Blair shows that Bacon was making a very practical recommendation to people who were overwhelmed by the availability of books and couldn’t imagine how they were going to read them all. Bacon tells such worried folks that they can’t read them all, and so should develop strategies of discernment that enable them to make wise decisions about how to invest their time. I think Bacon would have applauded Clay Shirky’s comment that we suffer not from “information overload” but from “filter failure.” Bacon’s famous sentence is really a strategy for filtering.

Today American publishers are cranking out close to 300,000 new book titles (and new editions) each year. We need a filter. But how do we build such a filter to fit around the contours of our life? That is one of the major questions I sought to address in my forthcoming book Lit!, particularly in chapter 7, “Read with Resolve: Six Priorities That Decide What Books I Read (and Don’t Read).” My point there is simple: book readers must first determine clear reading goals. Once we determine what we want our books to accomplish (even if the goal is mere pleasure), a host of questions about what books you should read will resolve themselves, making the choice about what books to read, and which ones not to read, a more manageable decision.

Reading Digest (August 9, 2011)

Tony Reinke .Reading Digest

Hello blog readers. It’s been too long since I posted my reading digest and I apologize for that. So here’s what I’m reading currently:

Francis-Noel Thomas and Mark Turner, Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose, 2nd ed (Princeton; 2011). This book wades much deeper into literary theory than most how-to books on writing style. The authors bring classic writing style into the foreground in a way that makes it theoretically understandable and, with a number of very clear examples, well illustrated too. If there’s anything I take away from this book is a deeper appreciation for the non-fiction prose style of C.S. Lewis. Although Lewis is nowhere mentioned in the book (an oversight), he is a prime example of classic style and this book helped me discover what attracts me especially to his essays and non-fiction writings. Another point I take from this book is the power of truth to persuade. A William Blake line is quoted: “Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ’d” (125). Worth dwelling on that line for a few moments. Write the authors, “To show truth is automatically to persuade. Truth carries its own sufficient force. In this way, truth is inhuman: it is absolutely self-sufficient; it cuts through all human deficiencies; it needs no help from human beings. All it needs to be perceived is an unadulterated human presentation … Truth is self-evident once shown” (126). Theologically we must also say that truth gets suppressed in unrighteousness, so truth presentation is not so persuasive as these authors make it appear. Regardless, the point is an important one because for the writer there isn’t a greater power to wielded than clear truth. Classic prose writers seek to communicate the truth as clear and simply as possible, because where truth is presented clearly, an audience cannot help but be persuaded. That’s an excellent point to be learned and employed by writers and preachers alike.

Aristotle, Poetics; Longinus, On the Sublime; Demetrius, On Style (Loeb Classic; 1995). The Loeb classics are beautifully constructed and perfect in size. Reading them is a pure aesthetic delight for a bibliophile like myself. As for content these three books coincide with Thomas/Turner. In Aristotle’s classic on writing style, he does a fine job comparing and contrasting the value and function of fiction and non-fiction genres. Not long ago on the blog I posted an excerpt and some thoughts on this topic (see here). Demetrius has written a style textbook that makes for a good read. Longinus likewise covers many themes as well, providing the most help where he distinguishes between sublime writing that elevates a topic from an overly emphasized amplification that actually does nothing to move the reader. How do you elevate without redundant amplifications, is the question Longinus is largely concerned with. In the spirit of Thomas/Turner, Longinus writes, “a grand style is the natural product of those whose ideas are weighty” (185). This trio of classic books on writing style were a perfect complement to my read of Thomas/Turner.

G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (Baker; Dec. 1, 2011). Of all the many theological disciplines that interest me, biblical theology is one of my favorites, and I’m always watching for new BT works to come along. I’ve been anticipating this one since over one year ago when I first heard about it. This is Beale’s opus, and may be the most important book published in 2011, at least it’s now atop my book of the year list. Beale is convinced that a better understanding of the OT will help us understand the NT more clearly and he masterfully ties together prominent OT themes into the NT storyline, helping the reader see the many parallels and connections. Perhaps the most important strength of this work is the emphasis on inaugurated eschatology. Writes Beale, “the major doctrines of the Christian faith are charged with eschatological electricity.” Nicely said. I agree. This is not an introduction to BT, and it at times gets very dense and technical, as is true of most of Beale’s works. But if you are serious about BT (if you can fill in the first names of these men by heart: _______ Vos, _______ Eichrodt), you’ll want to start saving your coins for when it gets released in a few months. Perhaps we’ll have a book giveaway to celebrate its release?

Robert Letham, Union with Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology (P&R; Sept. 16, 2011). Union with Christ is an essential theme drawing together the full personal and work of Christ and applying that reality to all of Christian life and future. In his forthcoming book Letham addresses union from the three categories mentioned in the title. Often he lands somewhere between Gaffin and Horton, being willing to critique each of them when necessary (according to the introduction both Gaffin and Horton read and made suggested changes to his manuscript). One highlight was chapter 5: “Union with Christ and Transformation.” There Letham historically traces the theme of union as it developed from the patristic age, where it was rooted more directly to the Incarnation, and then to the reformation and Luther and Calvin, where union and the finished work of Christ emerged more clearly into view. There are some gems in this book, like this one: “Union with Christ is the foundational basis for sanctification and the dynamic force that empowers it” (6). Good stuff. And while I’m not fully versed in all the dynamics of the reformed debates over justification/union (a major theme throughout this book) and I’m not sure yet where I stand on the Horton <> Letham <> Gaffin spectrum, yet there’s a lot of material in this book that is not up for debate and that I think we can find a large degree of agreement. Most of all Letham wants us to live out our union with Christ. He closes his book with this plea: “If you are not united to Christ and all we have said is a purely academic exercise, please consider your situation, believe in Christ, and serve him with all that is in you by the help of the Holy Spirit. Scholarship, theological discussion, bibliographical information is important—but it is far from ultimate. There is something far greater. If we are united to Christ, endless vistas open” (141). Beautiful. Given the importance of union with Christ in the NT, and the relatively few recent works on the theme, I welcome any/all new books to help us uncover this doctrinal treasure, and one that looks at union both biblically, historically, and theologically is especially welcomed.

So those are some books I’ve finished or am finishing up now.

And here are some books waiting on deck:

Happy reading!

Sabbath rest in a 24/7 culture

Tony Reinke Sabbath, spurgeon

Without qualification Eichrodt makes the point that in OT history the weekly practice of setting aside one day for rest was unique to Israel. In other words, Israelites lived in a 24/7 world where trade was happening 24/7. To take one day off each week would result in compounded business implications for faithful Israelite businessmen over the long term. Writes Goldengay: “Not to trade on the sabbath seriously reduces opportunity to succeed in business. The prophet [Isaiah] does not promise that people will do so well on the other six days that they will not lose out, in the manner of the Israelites in the wilderness who found enough manna on Friday to last two days. The exhortation does not even promise that people will do well enough, even if not as well as the most successful foreigners who are free to trade on the sabbath. It does promise, specifically to eunuchs and foreigners who accept this discipline, the joy of making their mark within the people of God and of participating in the worship of the temple (Is 56:1–8).” In other words, taking a day to gather with the people of God will cost you–it will cost you financially because that’s one day you cannot trade, and it will cost you in productivity because that’s one day out of the field or mill or workshop. All the while the Israelites must have been aware that their neighbors were using Saturday to make money. But for those foreigners willing to turn away from the 24/7 attitude of their culture, to walk by faith, and to observe the Sabbath rest, to these God promises (through Isaiah) a fruitful place among the People of God and a truckload of spiritual and eternal blessings.